I’ve decided that a good starting point for the blog was to
write about how we were able to throw a wedding in NY for 150 people. And proudly at a budget that I believe was
below the U.S.
national average for weddings (I’m sure it was definitely below the NY
average!). Here are some of the things we did to cut costs while still having a
party that some of our guests kindly told us was one of the best they’ve been
to.
The Dress
Unlike other brides, I never really had
a wedding dress that I’ve always dreamed of.
That made the decision much easier.
On a trip to California,
my cousin (who was also my matron of honor) took me to a small bridal shop that
was having a gown sale. When we got
there, incredible dresses were lined up that would have otherwise cost
thousands of dollars. Now for the big BUT:
because they were on sale, you didn’t really have a choice on the sizes
and alteration would cost about three times as much as the cost of the dress
itself. One dress that had gorgeous
beading came down to $150 after the 90% discount. Tempting, but to have it altered would have
cost me $450!
Now, my
husband says I’m cheap, but I think I’m only practical. I wasn’t spending too much money on a dress
that I was going to wear only once. So I
walk over to the bridesmaid dresses. I
discovered that when a designer makes bridal gowns that cost thousands of
dollars, the bridesmaid dresses would be good enough for a more casual wedding
at a fraction of the cost. I found a Watters
bridesmaid dress in khaki (looked like a darker ivory) that same day. I did have to have it shipped to NY and
altered by a local seamstress, but the whole thing probably cost me just about
$400.
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| Photo by Kim Thao Photography |
Knowing the
seamstress who I took my dress to before I bought the dress, however, might
have saved me even more. She worked at
the local dry cleaner, and she told me she would have made a dress to order! If
you have a design in mind and can find a trustworthy seamstress like Vicki,
then you would have a dress made specifically for your body in the fabric of
your choice.
The Wedding Party
Dresses
Keep it
small. Our wedding party consisted of a maid and a matron of honor, and two
best men. And my maid and matron of honor both have very strong ideas about
what they were NOT wearing. Definitely
not the nightmare that Katherine Heigl was subject to in 27 Dresses. Consider checking out dresses from department
stores instead of bridal shops. My
cousin and I looked at the evening dresses at Macy’s, also during my trip to Cali. Fortunately, we found these London Times cocktail dresses that were on
sale that week for about $60. And the
color worked perfectly with my theme. The
next week, the same dress was back to its original $98. Got two sizes for my maid of honor who was in
NY. We returned the other dress to
Macy’s in NY (the beauty of getting it from a national chain of department
stores) without any hassle. Happily,
because they were not meant to be bridesmaid dresses, they both said they would
actually wear this dress again.
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| Photo by Kim Thao Photography |
Shirts for the Groom
and His Best Men
There’s a cultural twist to the men’s wardrobe
at our wedding. Because I am Filipino, I
thought it would be cool if my husband and his brothers wore the traditional
Barong Tagalog. These are
hand-embroidered shirts, the best of which are made from pineapple fiber. My brothers-in-law loved the idea that they
didn’t have to wear suits in the summer and the shirt didn’t even have to be
tucked in! All they needed was a pair of
black pants and they were set.
Budget-wise, the barongs probably cost less than $100 for all three
because I had them made in the Philippines.
My sweet mother brought them with her to NY when she came for the wedding… and
ultimately gave them to us as a gift.
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| MIB: Men in Barongs (Photo by Kim Thao Photography) |
The Church
This was
not a very hard decision to make at all. I knew that if I was ever to get
married in NY, it was going to be at my Alma Mater. The Gothic style of the Fordham
University Church
building in the Bronx is always a sight to
behold. And the inside made for even
more dramatic photos. And best of all,
because the church itself was so beautiful, I only had to put tall flower
arrangements on each side of the altar and we were set. This was especially helpful because the church
does not clear out decorations after weddings.
This made it simpler for our friends to just grab the arrangements when
we were done. Sure, Fordham was about $200
more expensive than our local parish here in Long Beach, but we saved so much money on
flowers and decorations that it was definitely worth it. Not to mention, the headache of clearing them
out at the end that we had avoided! The
guests were so impressed by the beauty of the church and I am convinced that
adorning it too much would have distracted from the very reason that I wanted
to get married there in the first place. Although
only alumni have the option to get married at Fordham, there are many beautiful
churches in NY that are impressive enough in themselves.
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| Photo by Kim Thao Photography |
To be continued…
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